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A stoic approach to the loss of 'stuff'.

I’ve lost a few things recently. But one of them hurt more than the rest.

While in Thailand, I went for a Thai massage - one where you change into a sort of loose pyjamas. I’d put my necklace, which I’ve worn pretty much every day for the last three years, into a pocket of my shorts.

After the massage I did a few errands, as I was about to leave Bangkok for Koh Samui, when I noticed my necklace was missing. Immediately gutted, I thought the most obvious place would have been the massage place, so went back there to ask but we couldn’t find it.

Gutted, I realised how irreplaceable this necklace was to me. And while I made myself accept the loss, I couldn’t help but kick myself for being so careless.

I’ve had a few other losses recently; some very nice Ray ban sunglasses, my camera - not lost but broken, and a small accident on a motorbike that ended up costing me a few hundred USD in repairs. But none of those ‘losses’ meant anywhere near as much as this necklace.

Fortunately when I returned to Bangkok, and went back to the same salon, they’d found my necklace and hung onto it for me. I was overwhelmingly grateful to them for finding it and have a renewed appreciation for how much it means to me.

Most things are easily replaced and in theory should mean nothing more than the monetary cost of replacement. But to understand how much something does mean to you, you need to truly contemplate losing that item in the first place.